Severe Early Childhood Caries (S-ECC) differs from ECC in that S-ECC does what?

• A. ECC is one or more dmfs in children under 6; S-ECC varies with age
• B. S-ECC is a fixed dmfs threshold across ages
• C. ECC uses only cavitated lesions
• D. S-ECC applies to primary teeth only

Answer: (A)

Severity classifications for caries in young children hinge on age. Severe Early Childhood Caries uses age-specific thresholds for the number of decayed, missing, and filled surfaces (dmfs) to define what counts as severe, so the cut-off changes as a child gets older. ECC, by contrast, uses a single criterion for caries experience (dmfs > 0) within the target age range. Because the potential number of affected surfaces increases with age and eruption patterns change, age-adjusted thresholds in S-ECC better reflect true severity rather than applying one fixed number across all preschool ages. dmfs represents the count of decayed, missing due to caries, and filled surfaces in primary teeth.